Some questions about this tablet thing, that have made me doubt its existence. Questions that the excellent Daring Fireball article also addresses, but does not answer – no one has answers right now.

What is the screen like? If it’s LCD, is Apple really expecting to succeed in the ebook market? The single defining feature in a suddenly-cluttered, apparently reasonably successful market is the e-ink screen, notable for the absence of backlight and close resemblance to print, but also for many side effects that make them bad for other uses (low refresh rate, monochrome, poor contrast). Apple may well view readers with some condescension – “no one reads any more” – and if so, they may settle for an LCD, which is good for everything except reading. But if they have actually tried to solve the problem, they may have something cool up their sleeves. Perhaps two layered displays? Does the backlight turn off when a book is opened? I’m very curious.

How are you supposed to type on its presumed on-screen keyboard? Do you hold it in one hand and type with the other? Do you hold it with both hands and type with your thumbs? The latter is actually more than doable on a 7” screen, and would probably work on 10” as well. But that leads to the next thing-

Is it really going to be a grand? That’s laptop money even for Apple (and at the netbook price range, three laptop money). While that makes my heart sink because it means I wouldn’t buy it, it also makes me a little excited because it means that Apple may be trying to replace the laptop, not slide in alongside it in a rather crowded gadget matrix – phone / “smartbook” / netbook / laptop / desktop. That’s ballsy stuff, although I remain skeptical of the value of a keyboardless computer. I sure as hell head to a computer when I have to type anything more ambitious than “LOL” on my iPhone, despite being comparatively good at thumb-bashing.

I think Apple may well have arrived at the tablet form after experimenting with netbooks – one can imagine they are both trying to solve the same problem. I’m just concerned that throwing out the keyboard throws out more good than bad. Then again, the Nexus One’s lack of a hardware keyboard may indicate that smartphones are evolving away from such dangly bits, like the arms of a tyrannosaur. So will we learn to stop typing and love the screen?

Whatever, it’s exciting stuff for the gadget nerd. I’m almost as hyped as I am for the final season of Lost, and that’s saying something.

According to this video, which is to say according to a Panasonic spokesman, it will arrive in late May, for $1899 CDN. Ouch!

Inside the iPhone Gray Market, from Business Week. One of our writers has a grey market iPhone (do I name names? It’s not illegal). Anyway it strikes me that this article misses the point, wondering as it does why apple tolerates all the unlocked phones. Hell, Apple gets paid no matter how you use it – that’s the beauty of selling hardware. It’s the carriers and the negotiations therewith that prevent the legit iPhone from gracing us with its perfectly legal presence, but the article doesn’t mention that.

I’m thinking about getting one. Thinking pretty hard about it. But it’s the mobile internet that really interests me – I don’t need portable video and I already have an iPod and a phone. I heard about Rogers’ unlimited plan and got all excited until I realized it was a pretend unlimited plan. And I don’t want to jump on an unlocked iPhone and then have it locked out when the legit iPhone shows up.

Again I say, it’s hard up here for a nerd.

The cable of my Shure E2Cs finally fell to pieces yesterday. I was prepared to post a rant about their low build quality, until a little bit of web research revealed that this is always the weak point of headphones. A competing product, the Ultimate Ears super.fi line, actually come with detachable cables – a thoughtful yet sad admission.

More...

I’ve been speccing out HDTVs for a while now and thought it was time to share what I have so far. Long story short: Sharp Aquos 42in LCD 1080p. Reasons: good reviews, good stats (1200:1 contrast, 6ms response, 2xHDMI), 1080p. Compared to what you could get for $2300 CDN even a year ago, this is pretty sweet. However, there are new models coming out soon, and the main difference is that they operate at 120hz. What does this mean? These articles (1, 2) can tell you more than I can, but it has to do with the refresh rate and it sounds like:

1. 120hz, since it divides equally by 24 and 30, will yield a ‘smoother’ image no matter whether it is video- or film-based
2. response time will be faster, around 4ms, which is of interest to gamers.

That said, I’m not sure whether these things will make any real-world difference. I haven’t exactly heard current HDTV owners crying out for smoother refresh rates; not a whine from HD gamers saying their TVs make them suck at games. Whenever I’m ready to buy (crosses fingers) I’ll see which way the wind blows. Maybe when they clear out the existing models there will be Hott Dealz.

It hasn’t escaped my attention that the thing that drives my home theatre upgrades lately is gaming, not film viewing. Having surround sound speakers for films is a nice touch, but for games it’s a performance advantage. HD will likely be the same. This is odd for a film-school grad.

Oh, while we’re on the subject: apparently Blu-Ray won.

I just got one of these things last week.

There was a lot of hype last console generation about living room convergence, about consoles becoming “computers in your living room”. To some extent this was true – on the inside, they are indeed computers, albeit specialized ones. But on the outside it was not. We did not use the machines in the way we use computers. We’d load in a game and play it. Full stop. End transmission.

With the 360, the feeling is different. The software is a lot more robust than I expected. But more on that in a second.

More...